40k: Dirty Tricks (No. 12) - Slicing the Pie

Recently on Bell of Lost Souls, Spacecurves gave us a tactics class on how to manipulate a flamer template to hit a vehicle and its accompanying squad through the use of using a blocking squad to hijack template placement.  Essentially what this boils down to is that when you've got two kinds of weapons in a squad (or on a vehicle), that is - some for anti-infantry and others for anti-tank, it doesn't always make sense to waste a shot on the vehicle if you're not going to do any real damage.  While the raider is a bad example below, since you may actually hurt that paper tiger with a flamer, but if it was a landraider you'd merely scratch its paint and thus would be wasting time to even attempt the shot.  As Spacecurves points out, however, template weapons are unique in that they can be placed to hit both the vehicle you have to shoot at per the rules, as well as something a little softer nearby that you have a prayer to hurt.  In the picture below, which is from Spacecurves' article, you can see how to manipulate squad placement such that the landspeeder can make maximum use of his multi-melta and heavy flamer in the same shooting phase to essentially hit two different targets.  Remember that the rulebook says you must hit as much of the vehicle as possible with the template.  Without the intervening squad, the template would have to be placed in such a way that it wouldn't cover any of the enemy squad sitting outside.
 

 

While Spacecurves definitely highlights an important tactic in his article, as usual, he is really tapping into two different tactical concepts here.  The first, and most obvious, is positioning your flamer models so that they can do maximum damage when it comes time to unleash a flood of burning promethium.  When you're moving your models forward, you don't leave your flamer out on the end of the squad, tucked behind one of your own troopers so that you can't hit more than a single member of the target unit.  That would be foolish!  

Any commander worth his salt is going to pay very close attention to where that flamer is located as he moves his miniatures forward.  You're going to move them so that you have the best possible shot at all times.  Sometimes it is hitting as many of the enemy squad as possible.

And sometimes its hitting the softer unit behind the squad you're actually shooting at with the rest of your squad.  Your goal will depend on your situation on the battlefield, obviously.

The other tactical element that Spacecurves taps into is the concept of 'slicing the pie,' most commonly referred to as an element of dynamic entry. 

 

If you're a military junky, like a lot of 40k players, the concept is probably not completely foreign to you.  The idea is that you don't just walk into a room potentially full of hostiles.  You carefully dissect the room by presenting as little of yourself as possible as you enter, increasing your angle of exposure slowly as you view what is in the room.

If you've never played paintball, or the SWAT series of video games (or frankly, any number of first person shooters), or God forbid, have never been in a life threatening situation as a soldier or law enforcement officer where you've had to employ this technique, then maybe you'll miss some of the obvious advantages that slicing the pie offers you in several different situations on the battlefield.  Like the Spacecurves article, and in flamer template placement in general, slicing the pie is a matter of using your own troops (either in your own squad or with a nearby unit) as a moving wall.  You place the wall in such a way that your flamer can only see certain parts of the enemy, and thus can only shoot at certain parts of the enemy -- generally where that flamer shot is going to be most effective rather than where the shot must typically placed by default in the rules.  But don't forget that this technique can be applied in several ways.

In 40k, if half or more of your squad is in cover, then everyone gets a cover save.  Thus, like the picture below, the enemy can typically only see as much of you as you present to him (higher ground, weapon placement on vehicles, etc. all have an influence here).

 

Let's pretend for a moment that those four blue guys above are not just shadow elements in the diagram, but actual members of your four man squad.   This schematic is showing you FAR more than you think it does. 

First, if you look at the top blue guy, he obviously can't see the guy in red.  But when you look at his line of sight, realize that in addition to himself, everyone in that squad can see everything in his line of vision.  If you're looking to maximize your squads firing potential such that as many guns as possible can contribute to the squad's firepower, then you need to shoot at something in that top guy's field of vision.  I realize this seems like a no brainer, but how many times have you seen a juicy target that is obviously open to some of your guys, and then declared it before you actually counted up the number of guns you'd be able to bring to bear?  That happens a LOT, which is why it is important for you to not simply start looking for juicy targets, but to look at your squad's field of vision first, and then identify the best target in their line of sight.

Second, this field of vision diagram also shows you whether or not the guy in red gets a cover save.  Let's say the guy at the bottom of the blue stack has an AP1 weapon that will blow a hole clean through Mr. Red if it hits him.  And let's say that that grey line is no longer a wall, but a hedge that all of your guys can see over.  Now, this picture is a close call, but let's pretend that you and your opponent can agree that the guy at the bottom of the stack has a clear unobstructed view to Mr. Red.  If that's true, then all of a sudden, you have to decide if you want to go the route of 'fusillade of fire,' or if you want to take a chance with blowing a hole in Mr. Red that he can't save.  If you opt to only shoot with the guy at the bottom, then Mr. Red will not get a cover save -- the only shot made is unimpeded.  Think backwards: if the majority of the shots fired are made at models in cover from them, then the target gets a cover save; if the majority of the shots fired are made at models that do not have cover from them, then the target does not get a cover save.  Just as if you were firing from a rooftop where only your heavy weapon had the range to make the shot, it doesn't matter if the rest of the squad, had it been in range and fired, would have done so from a position that would have given Mr. Red a cover save -- if only the heavy weapon fires, then he doesn't get one.  The same concept applies here.

Third, in addition to determining whether he's going to get a cover save from you, it is also telling you who is going to be in cover from Mr. Red when he fires back!  The cover rules in 40k are really weird in that they can be manipulated in such a fashion where you can leave a special/heavy weapon hanging out in no man's land with no cover, and yet somehow still get a cover save because everyone else in the squad is cowering behind a rock.  If you want to avoid your enemy's weapons that need a line of sight to shoot at you, then you can slice the pie with intervening models and terrain to make sure that the enemy doesn't have a bead on you.  Similarly, you can slice the pie in such a way that you can minimize potential damage to your squad by making sure that your squad will have a majority of its members in cover to make best use of the abstract cover rules.

Whether or not you're conscious of it, you're slicing the pie all over the battlefield!  Angles and lines of sight are key elements to the game of 40k, and if you're careful about your exposure, you'll be able to take advantage of several aspects of the cover save rule.

Now... go eat some pie.